Houston’s housing market is posting gains from boom levels.

• The number of home closings recorded by the Houston Association of Realtors®' Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in '01 was a record 56,980, up 2.6 percent from '00, and the total value of MLS closings rose from $8.3 billion to $8.8 billion.
• Closings numbered 41,421 in the first eight months of '02, up 6.2 percent from the same period last year. Continued low interest rates could extend this robust residential market, but signs of incipient slowing are starting to appear.
• The addition of new housing in the MLS was a new wrinkle in '99. New homes account for perhaps 20 percent of all MLS listings, introducing significant distortion into comparisons with sales volumes for earlier years. Also exaggerating the strength of this year's numbers versus last year's are an expansion in geographic coverage of the MLS and the new opportunity for individual sellers to list their own homes on the MLS.
• While MLS home prices have risen appreciably, they remain a bargain. '98 marked the first time the median price of resale homes in Houston topped $100,000. The annual median sales price climbed to $112,000 in '99 and $123,500 in '00, then edged upward to $125,000 in '01. This June's median price of $135,000, repeated in July and nearly matched in August, is the highest monthly median to date.

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